Demon's Virtue

"Truthfully, now that I get the chance to have a better look at you, you do not look like what we know of normal Imps. Your face, I mean." Solomon pointed out with a slight laugh, and Eiro just turned toward him with a bit of a smirk, "Yeah, it definitely looks much more like that of a person. If I had a different skin-color, I may even pa.s.s as one, ignoring my horns and the fact I don"t have hair."

With a quick nod, Solomon immediately agreed, "Right, that"s what I was thinking! That brings us to another topic, actually, how do you-" The King started, although he then realized something else as he slightly turned his eyes to the side, "Ah, sorry, there was something else we needed to speak about in relation to the school first. I think that other topic may be a bit more appropriate to speak about only with the two of us." 

Since Eiro already had a rough idea what Solomon wanted to mention, he just nodded his head and waited for him to continue.

"It is about Felix, and in what way he could attend the Academy if he just so wishes." Solomon explained, before Eiro raised his brows and turned over toward the young man, who couldn"t fully catch what the King just said. So, Eiro looked at him and tried to explain it through hand-signs as well as he could, before Felix started to freak out.

"Ah, I... I don"t think I will be able to attend school, y-your Majesty..." Felix replied nervously, but Solomon immediately shook his head and started to speak, with Eiro constantly interpreting for him through sign-language, "As I said, that is exactly why I am here. You see, there is a quite skilled man that works as the Academy"s head-librarian. He was born deaf, and is quite a fan of any form of art that he can actually consume. Initially, we intended to hire him as an Arts-instructor, but due to his condition, it was rather hard for him to work with the students, even with the a.s.sistance of an interpreter. But the moment I heard about your condition and the things you have talent for, I simply couldn"t ignore this as just some coincidence. It seemed like fate to me." Solomon explained.

Once Felix realized what Eiro was telling him through the hand-signs, he started getting quite nervous, "Are you sure I could... attend the Academy?" Felix asked, and Solomon immediately nodded his head, before Felix turned his head over toward Eiro to see what he was thinking.

The Demon was just lightly smiling at Felix, before making the handsigns for "Your Choice". In the end, the young man just nodded his head before slightly bowing forward to Solomon, "It would be an honor. Thank you, your Majesty." He said, and Solomon slowly turned toward Eiro with a smile, "Now that that has been dealt with, I think you and I should speak about that other thing. Charles, please try and inform everyone of the conduct inside of the Academy while we"re gone." Solomon suggested before he stood up, following Eiro out of the room.

And thus, while randomly walking through the hallways of this manor, they started to speak about other important things. One of them being the thing that Solomon wanted to talk about before.

"When you came to the castle on the day of the Solstice, you were speaking of some kind of organization, weren"t you? You are planning on infiltrating it, are you not?" Solomon inquired, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "That"s what I"m planning, yes. They"ve been doing quite a few troublesome things so far, and they have different artifacts that are going to be quite useful to possess."

"Could you possibly elaborate on that a bit further? What did they do, and what do they have that you want?" 

For a moment, Eiro thought about what he should tell Solomon and what he shouldn"t tell him, but in the end he just figured that there was no reason to hide anything in regards to this, "You see, Argberg"s Enka was part of the organization, as was the person that tried to kill the Lady of Winter the other day. I"m trying to find out why exactly he tried to do that as well as a lot of other information on the organization, but it"s a bit harder than I thought it would be. Well, anyway, their main goal is to simply get stronger and stronger, and people like that are obviously going to turn out rather troublesome in the future, especially since they"re succeeding. They have multiple cards, and they can somehow create artificial artifacts from them with similar effects to the normal cards. That is definitely something I want, especially because they apparently also know how to enhance cards to be stronger and better than before."

"Enhance cards..?" Solomon asked, "Wait, then does that mean that-"

"Yes, Evelyn, the Bloodstone Sorceress, is part of the organization. The amulet she wears is something meant to enhance the main stone set into it, which as you already know is the actual "Bloodstone"." Eiro explained swiftly, but Solomon just couldn"t believe it. It seemed just extremely unexpected to him. 

Noticing this, Eiro continued, "That"s the reason why I said that we don"t need her for the Solstice when you introduced us to each other. Then, another time, she came here and tried to get me to join the organization, so that I could "more easily fulfill my sick desires", all of which she obviously made up herself in her mind. And during the actual Solstice, she wanted to manipulate me and make me reveal my demon self, which I played along with and showed it to you, but she a.s.sumed that it would have made you order the guards to kill me or something like that. Either way, as far as I"m concerned, she"s a horrible person."

"I see..." Solomon muttered quietly, "It is hard to believe that a member of such a great family would be part of an organization like that, but it would make sense with the things I"ve seen." The King pointed out as he just looked down at the ground, and then turned over toward Eiro again, "But what sort of plan do you have? What will you do after infiltrating the organization?"

"Hmm... I"m not entirely sure just yet. I don"t have a set plan." Eiro replied, "But that"s just because there"s still too much I don"t know about it. I don"t know the structure of the organization, nor do I know which areas and people are the most important. I don"t even know where they meet up." The demon explained.

"But you must have some sort of rough idea of what you want to do after infiltrating that place, right? What is your end-goal?" Solomon inquired, and Eiro finally understood what he was asking, "Ah, right. Mostly, I just want information. I want to be able to see what the members are doing or are planning on doing, and if it"s troublesome, I"ll figure out a way to stop them. At first I was thinking that I should maybe destroy the organization, but lately I"ve been considering just taking it over. If I just destroyed it, then all those people would be running around without anyone stopping them from anything, and we would have no way to figure out where they are and what they"re planning. Well, depending on what I find out, I may just end up destroying it after all, but I"m not entirely sure. First, I"ll get to the point where I can replace the top-dog, anyway."

Solomon slightly sighed out and nodded his head, "I see. I should have expected something like this from you. So, then how are you planning on doing this? Would it not be troublesome if they ended up figuring out your ident.i.ty?"

"Of course, which is why I"m working on a way to disguise myself. I might try and replace someone with a high standing within the organization right away like that." The Demon explained, "That disguise will be ready in a few ways, so don"t worry about that. If I need to, I"ll just get rid of anyone that might be able to figure out that I"m actually a Demon instead of a person. It"s as simple as that."

"Right, it"s as simple as that." Solomon replied with a slight laugh, before he moved the topic elsewhere, "Well, I would rather appreciate it if you kept me up-to-date on this topic in the future. But there is something else we may need to discuss, as I"m not entirely sure what I should think about it. Eiro, are you currently a Royal, having killed the former u003cThe Worldu003e?"

Eiro slowly turned toward Solomon before smiling and shaking his head, "No, I"m not a royal. I"m a candidate for becoming one, but I"m not strong enough to safely become the next u003cThe Worldu003e yet."

With a sigh of what could only be relief, Solomon nodded his head, "I see. I am not sure if that makes me feel better or not, however. Eiro, can you a.s.sure me that your intentions will not change even after you do become u003cThe Worldu003e? I do not know what happens to Monsters after they become royals, but it must be something that has quite the impact on them and their mentality, is that not right?"

"Hm, I don"t think so, actually. Mostly it"s just that they get so much stronger that they can indulge in whatever they always wanted to do, but couldn"t because they were too weak to actually go through with it. A lot of people do the same when they receive a card of the Minor Arcana, isn"t that right?" Eiro pointed out, "Don"t worry, amongst my stats, the one that has the naturally highest value is Willpower. My perception is just strengthened through one of my cards. You can rest a.s.sured that there isn"t much that can sway me. The opposite, rather. Growing stronger through becoming a royal will only further increase my willpower."

"I see. Then I really have no reason to worry, do I? Sorry if I offended you just now." Solomon explained, and slowly placed his hands behind his back, "Then, there is just one last thing that I need to ask you about."

"Sure, what is it, Solomon?" Eiro asked with a light smile on his face. And sure, he knew that Solomon trusted him, but the question that the King asked next was still rather shocking to him.

"Why are you, a Demon, raising the Holy Priestess as your daughter?"